Yankee Boy Basin, located in the Colorado Rocky Mountains near Ouray, Colorado, is accessible via a 4 wheel drive road. My oldest son, who provided the 4×4 Jeep, and I spent several early morning and evenings in the basin, since it was a relatively easy place for us to get to and there were multiple photography opportunities in the area.
It is best to have a high clearance vehicle with skid plates and good off road tires before attempting to travel this road. If the road is not wet, it might be possible for a high clearance vehicle equipped with only stock tires and an experienced driver to make it up the road. On one of our outings there, a thunderstorm came up at our destination, so we went back down to a safer place to wait out the storm. We encountered a young man in a Subaru Outback, who was planning to make the trip up the 4×4 road. His vehicle had stock tires and no skid plates. My son, who has some 4 wheel drive road experience and has been up this road a number of times, advised him not to try the road with his vehicle; however, he told him that he could follow us, if he liked, and at least he would have someone nearby in case he had difficulty. He tried to follow us up the road, but very soon got to a point where his tires could not get sufficient traction on the wet rocks and he turned around.
We ended up aborting one of our planned evening shoots due to a continuing storm. We had hoped to get gorgeous views with clouds and mountainsides illuminated with the late evening light as often happens after a storm; but the storm and sky showed no signs of clearing, so we retreated to our campsites, where we were treated to sky, clouds and a double rainbow; but I only had time to shoot a few iPhone photos before these all faded away.
Yankee Boy Basin is a picturesque setting and can be covered with wildflowers in the early summer months. There were some wildflowers remaining during our visit in late July, but they were mostly past their peak bloom.
The 4 wheel drive road follows a stream much of the way and there are a number of waterfalls and lovely cascades along the way.
At the end of the 4 wheel drive road is a small lake surrounded by mountain peaks. A popular hiking trail begins at the end of the 4 wheel road that takes one to Mount Sneffels, 14,158 feet high mountain, which many hikers like to bag.
The elevation everywhere in this area is high enough that one not used to it might have some difficulty with the thin air. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noted that higher elevations are more of a problem, but so far I’ve not had altitude sickness. I can move around quite well at altitude, as long as I am not carrying a load; but as soon as I pick up a loaded day pack and camera gear, the effort to walk up an incline becomes noticeable, requiring frequent stops to catch my breath. I’m sure that my normal sea level life adds to the altitude effect.
One of the fun things about such outings as this is meeting other people with similar interest. On our first morning in the basin, we chatted with the only other person there, who was also into photography and from the same metropolitan area as me.
I hope that you enjoy this post and I welcome your comments and suggestions.